Did you know that the first online food order was a pizza? Back in 1994, Pizza Hut tried to explore the unknown market of online ordering and from there, the billion-dollar market was born. Seeing the unmeasurable success of online ordering in the Pizza Industry, restaurant technology developers introduced a solution that will modernize and simplify the process of online pizza delivery, thus, the birth of the pizza online ordering system.
The market value for the Pizza Industry in Western Europe was forecasted to reach approximately 49.3 billion U.S. dollars. IT just shows how the UK population has shown a great amount of support for pizza delivery, that it has become part of every UK household.
While this industry carries a great appeal to the market, some restaurants still can’t open an opportunity for pizza online ordering. Here are some reports that should guide you in unlocking a prospective profit driver for your restaurant.
The UK Pizza Industry
Introducing an online ordering and delivery service creates numerous favorable moments and adds promise to your restaurant. The pizza market is a great asset for the UK’s online food ordering and the delivery market as it covered around a third of its total revenue which was accounted for 6.2 billion British pounds.
Pizza has been considered as the second most popular item bought in the supermarkets for dinner, and the fourth most popular dinner item to fast food dining restaurants. This shows how much potential the pizza market is in the UK.
In the UK, pizza is considered a bit more expensive compared to the rest of the world. Rent, taxes, and labor expenses are just some of the factors that influence the cause of a price increase. But this doesn’t affect the desire of the consumers to pizza.
Leading UK Pizza Brands
Though the UK is the home of the largest international franchise of Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Express is still considered as the leading pizza and Italian casual branch in the UK. Italian and Pizza restaurants are among the top restaurants where Brits tend to visit, and with 15 grams weekly pizza consumption, it is no surprise that Domino’s has opened 1,126 stores in the UK.
The Domino’s Pizza Group is the master franchisee of the Domino’s Pizza brand that manages the entire sales of the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Its online ordering and delivery went over 800 million British pounds, the last financial year of 2017. This is far from we are now, just imagine how much the market has grown since.
Other leading brands that cater to a huge UK market are Pizza Hut, Prezzo, Frankie & Benny’s, Jame’s Italian, Papa John’s, and Azzurri Group. All of these brands already started offering online ordering and delivery services, as consumers are now more inclined to restaurant-to-consumer delivery rather than completing their transactions to third-party developers such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
UK Pizza Trends
It is estimated that over half of the revenue of pizza delivery came from online orders. Pizza chains also claim that mobile and online orders increased their sales up to 18% compared to when they still cater delivery orders via phone.
According to the State of the Restaurant Industry Report, modern pizza consumers appear to be more supportive and interested in restaurants that incorporate technology into their operations. They believe that self-enhancing technology such as pizza delivery software, self-service kiosks, and table-side ordering tablets enhances the entire customer service of a restaurant.
The rise of cloud and ghost kitchen pizza brands also improves the resilience of the Pizza Industry during this pandemic. These virtual restaurants met the demand of consumers for fast, accurate, and convenient pizza delivery. Leading for some restaurateurs to believe that smaller restaurants will lead the future of the rest of the industry.
Social media marketing plays an important role with online ordering continuing to gain popularity and support from consumers. It enhanced the effectiveness of online ordering that leads to the forecasted growth of the worldwide pizza market to $233.26 billion.
While online ordering is a great way to optimize your restaurant operations, customers are still craving for human connection. It is your responsibility, as a restaurant owner, to continuously look for fresh approaches that can manage to balance the digitization and humanization of your restaurant brand.
UK Pizza Facts
Pepperoni is the most popular pizza toppings in the UK. Second to it is meat feast at 17%, ham and pineapple, bbq chicken, Margherita, tandoori chicken, veggie supreme, four cheese, garlic mushroom, and tuna.
Edinburgh and Southampton love pineapple on their pizza. Pepperoni is well-loved at Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast, Norwich, and Sheffield. And Nottingham, Manchester, and Liverpool are nations of meat lovers having 22% of their pizza consumers buy meat feast.
As the Restaurant Industry is already pivoting its operations towards opening and adopting the new normal of dining, and if you’re willing to tap the opportunity of the Pizza Industry, you must know what are the top five aspects that influence the decision of consumers in choosing a pizza restaurant. UK pizza consumers are looking for family-friendly, gives a good value for money, fun experience, welcoming atmosphere, and convenient service.
As for the value for each pizza market, the UK is divided into five. The home delivery pizza market is the leading sector that covers 32% of sales, next to it are the pizza restaurants which cover 27% of UK pizza sales, Italian restaurants are covering 23%, while chilled retailed pizza is at 10%. Lastly, frozen retail pizza covers 8% of the pizza sales.
For home pizza delivery service, the major brands that cover 45% of sales from this sector are the pizza restaurant chain Dominos, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s, while the other 55% are composed of independent pizza restaurants. Just Eats is the main delivery driver of independent pizza restaurants to keep up with the market demand.
The pizza consumer in Wales prefers more frozen pizza compared to other parts of the UK. 94% of their pizza sales, online and direct-order, are from frozen pizzas.
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